The Effect of SOX Internal Control Deficiencies and Their Remediation on Accrual Quality

This paper investigates the effect of internal control deficiencies and their remediation on accrual quality. We first document that firms reporting internal control deficiencies have lower quality accruals as measured by accrual noise and absolute abnormal accruals relative to firms not reporting internal control problems. Second, we find that firms that report internal control deficiencies have significantly larger positive and larger negative abnormal accruals relative to control firms. This finding suggests internal control weaknesses are more likely to lead to unintentional errors that add noise to accruals than intentional misstatements that bias earnings upward. Third, we document that firms whose…